As a fitness editor and marathon runner, I use daily dog walks as a form of active recovery. While walking is an excellent way to get started with exercise, I wondered if there was a way to boost the calorie burn on my daily walks. I tried adding intervals to my walks, which dramatically increased the number of calories I burnt.
Here’s how you can do it: start by incorporating hills into your walks or using a treadmill with an incline of 5-10%. If you live in a flat area like me, you can create intervals during your walk. I’d pick up the pace for short bursts, then return to my normal walking gait. You can use the timer function on your phone or a fitness tracker to time these intervals.
During my initial interval workout, I did 2-minute faster paces separated by 2 minutes of normal pace. This increased my calorie burn significantly. As I progressed, I lengthened the faster paces and found it was easy to incorporate this into my daily routine using my Apple Watch or phone’s timer function. You can also count your steps and walk faster for 20 steps before returning to normal pace.
Remember to focus on proper form, swing your arms, and stand tall as you move. With these simple intervals, you can boost the calorie burn on your daily walks without needing fancy equipment or a gym membership.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/wellness/fitness/forget-running-doing-this-one-thing-boosted-the-calorie-burn-on-my-daily-walks